I don't remember ordering this - Megan McArdle has the latest fun: a receipt for what an average taxpayer is paying for in the federal government. The idea is that Americans want to cut spending but they don't realize what great stuff they're getting.

Top three on the receipt are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and Megan raises a salient point about support for these programs: "Isn't it possible that widespread support for programs like Social Security and Medicare rests on the fact that most people don't realize just how big a portion of your paycheck those programs consume?"

Nearly one-fifth of the taxpayer's "bill" goes to Social Security. What would Joe Sixpack think about these regular payments into a program that will go belly-up before he has a chance to collect his promised benefits? Maybe Joe would say he'd rather keep his own money.